Hotel Theory
by Wayne Koestenbaum
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Description
Hotel Theory is two books in one: a meditation on the meaning of hotels, and a dime novel ( Hotel Women ) featuring Lana Turner and Liberace. Typical of Wayne Koestenbaum ?s invigoratingly inventive style, the two books ? one fiction, one nonfiction ? run concurrently, in twin columns, and the articles ?a, ? ?an, ? and ?the ? never appear. The nonfiction ruminations on hotels are divided into eight dossiers, composed of short takes on the presence of hotels in the author ?s dreams as well show more as in literature, film, and history. Guest stars include everyone from Oscar Wilde to Marilyn Monroe. Hotel Theory gives (divided) voice to an aesthetic of hyperaesthesia, of yearning. It is an oblique manifesto, the place where writing disappears. A new mode of theorizing ? in fiction, in fragment, through quotation and palimpsest ? arises in this dazzling work. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Not, in fact, a textbook on the hospitality industry, more a metaphysical/pulp look at the nature of hotels, each take on the subject running down adjacent columns on every page. Doesn't carry itself for the entire length, but interesting nonetheless.
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ThingScore 75
Less hard theory than a string of ruminations inspired by books, films, and artworks that have taken the hotel as their subject, it is the author’s most sustained effort at bringing delays and pauses to the fore.
added by paradoxosalpha
Author Information
37+ Works 1,385 Members
He is professor of English at the Graduate Center of the city University of New York & lives in New York City. (Bowker Author Biography)
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- Members
- 56
- Popularity
- 545,630
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
